


the breath that passes from you to me

by sterydia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, F/M, Happy Ending, Post Season 4 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 08:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9648839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sterydia/pseuds/sterydia
Summary: “You make me stupidly happy, Derek Hale,” Braeden said, and it made Derek smile like a fool.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for [emeraldarrows](http://emeraldarrows.livejournal.com) on Livejournal. Originally posted there on December 30, 2016. Pretend for fic sake that everything that happened in season 5 didn't go the way it did in canon. Really, just trying to give Derek the happy ending he deserves. Unbeta'd.

After Mexico, Derek hadn’t expected much. Moving forward was a foreign concept to him. For so long, he’d been so angry at Kate. She’d ruined his life; murdering his family hadn’t been enough, she and Peter had the intent of killing both him and Scott for power that would never be rightly theirs. But he’d been standing there over her, the opportunity to take his revenge right there for him, and he only felt free. Now, Kate would be the one who was hunted. Now, she would be the one who had to run for her life.

Derek did expect Braeden to go. When the bullets stopped flying, there was nothing else to keep her there. She had to track down the Desert Wolf, sticking by Derek’s side wasn’t exactly something that should have been above that. He wouldn’t have been offended, he was used to the women he became involved with letting him down.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she’d said as they drove away from Scott’s pack, making herself comfortable in the passenger seat. “But maybe a change of scenery would be nice for both of us,”

Braeden had very carefully shoved aside those expectations that Jennifer and Kate had left in Derek, expectations of being left betrayed and heartbroken once again, and made herself a part of his life. Derek liked that she wasn’t careful with him, she understood what he was and what he’d gone through, and she never tried to use that against him.

They landed in a small town not too far outside of Albany; it was rainy and cold and completely the opposite of California. Derek had been there before, back when Laura was alive. It was also where Cora was living. Braeden had yet to meet Derek’s sister, and it actually mattered to him if the two liked each other. They found the house that they would call home in the classified ads while sitting in a diner in Maryland; it was lake front property with a few acres of woods and no neighbors for a few miles. Braeden had just smiled at him across the table, circling the number for the real estate agent with a crayon that was given out to the kids to color on their placemats.

Cora was waiting in the driveway when Derek pulled the car up, and he swore that he was seeing things when he saw Isaac standing beside her. Looking over at Braeden, he saw a slow grin spread across her face. He barely even noticed the real estate agent standing on the porch waiting for them. He was barely out of the care before Cora was there, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face into his jacket. After a moment, Derek realized she was crying.

“Deaton called,” Isaac supplied quietly, and Derek wrapped his arms around his sister, holding her tight.

“Don’t you die on me again, you asshole,” Cora mumbled into the fabric of his shirt, obviously embarrassed by her reaction to seeing him.

Once she got ahold of herself, Cora turned to look at Braeden. Derek noticed her eyes lingering on Braeden’s scars for a moment. But then she stepped forward and hugged her. Derek overheard her thanking Braeden for sticking by Derek’s side.

“Mr. Hale,” The real estate agent had grown impatient, but kept that professional cheeriness in her voice, “Are you ready to see your house?”

* * *

Braeden startled in her sleep when she felt Derek jerk upright in bed. Another nightmare. It was nearly three in the morning.

She sat up behind him, gently smoothing her hands down his arms as he stared off across the room, trying to catch his breath. She pressed her lips against his back, feeling him tense up. Reaching around, she took his hand, holding it up for both of them to see.

“One...two...three…” She counted his fingers until she reached five, proving to him that he was awake, that this was real. Pushing his fingers down until they made a fist, Braeden felt him relax back into her.

She didn’t ask him to tell her what the nightmare was about, if he wanted to tell her, she would listen. But no matter how many of them he’d had since they moved into their house two months earlier, he never said anything about them.

Reclining back on the bed, Braeden pulled him with her, and he twisted around on the bed until his head was lying on her stomach, arm draped over her hips.

“I used to run track in high school,” she said suddenly. She could actually feel when his mouth turned up in a slight smile.

“Really? Were you any good?” he wondered quietly.

“I have trophies, Derek,” she pretended to be offended, carding her fingers through his hair. He tilted his head back to look up at her.

She told him about high school, about how her father made sure that he was at every meet no matter what his work schedule was supposed to be. She told him about how her mother was ‘mom’ to every one of her team mates, the cool mom that everyone wanted as their own.

“My parents would have liked you,” Braeden decided, a sudden lump forming in her throat. If Derek picked up on the ‘would have’ part of that, he didn’t say anything. She could feel his breathing getting deeper, and she knew he was close to sleep.

“I bet I can outrun you,” he said after a few minutes of silence.

Braeden smiled into the darkness of their bedroom, letting her fingers trail across the tattoo on his back, “Sleep, and we’ll see who will win tomorrow.”

* * *

Derek had been itching to shift and run as a wolf since Mexico. There was no one around for miles that could report seeing a large black wolf out in the woods, so he used that to his advantage. He wasn’t as fast as he usually was on two legs, and this gave Braeden an advantage as she let out a delighted laugh and ran past him.

He loved it out there, it was quiet and there was nothing supernatural to worry about coming after him. He was still worried about Scott, he would always worry about Scott, but he knew that the alpha had his pack and they could handle anything that might come into Beacon Hills. Derek deserved this; Scott had told him so. Everyone had told him so.

Braeden had disappeared between the trees, but Derek was able to track her scent, her heartbeat picking up in excitement. His senses were stronger when he was shifted, and he caught up with her easily. The shift from wolf to human was fluid and painless, and Braeden tossed him a pair of jeans as soon as he was back on two legs. He didn’t miss the appreciative once over she gave him, much like the day that they’d first met.

“I’m pretty sure I won,” she said with a triumphant smile.

“I’m pretty sure I gave you a shirt as well as jeans,” he grinned slightly as she waved the fabric around in her hands, out of his reach. “And I’m pretty sure you had an unfair advantage on me,”

Braeden handed him the shirt, “Hm, I do like the sound of that.”

If it had been anyone else saying that to him, Derek might not have liked it. But instead, he curled his arms around Braeden’s waist and pulled her close. “You’re happy here?”

“Do you mean in the middle of the woods? Probably not,” she said lightly.

Derek rolled his eyes at her, “You know what I mean,”

Because it would have been completely understandable that after two months, Braeden missed hunting. He wouldn’t have blamed her wanting to get back out there and start taking jobs again, he wouldn’t have minded going with her. Wherever she was, he wanted to be.

“You make me stupidly happy, Derek Hale,” Braeden said, and it made Derek smile like a fool. “Ask me again after the holidays, okay? Maybe you and I can go hunt some bad guys. But for now? I’ll race you back to the house,”

She pulled out of his arms and started running, her laughter echoing through the trees.

* * *

Braeden hadn’t been lying. She was happy. Being a mercenary had given her a certain thrill, and the money had made the job worth it all. She’d made more than enough money to live off of comfortably for a while. Deucalion hadn’t contacted her since he’d sent her to find Derek, none of her other contacts had reached out. The Calaveras had left her alone after Mexico.

A part of her was glad. She had never pictured herself living a life of domesticity, not really. She’d had boyfriends in high school, but nothing too serious. After Deucalion had given her the scars, she’d given up on anyone seeing past her skills as a gun for hire. But Derek, there had been something about him. She knew he felt it too, from the moment she broke down that door in Mexico and found him and Peter chained to the wall.

One of the things that got to her about him was his love for cooking. Coming from a family where she was an only child, she’d always spent nights in the kitchen with her parents, doing her homework at the table while her parents laughed and cooked and talked about their day. After her parents died and she became a U.S. Marshall, the nights of home cooked meals and family stopped. But Derek brought back that sense of home for her.

She hadn’t celebrated Thanksgiving in a really long time. Derek hadn’t either, but they were planning to make the best of it. If she’d known that mean getting up before sunrise to start cooking, she might have complained a little. But it was worth it; Cora and Isaac showed up and there was still too much food left over. Cora brought a pie that was literally the best thing that Braeden had ever eaten in the longest time, and Isaac brought wolfsbane infused whiskey for Derek.

“This was nice,” Braeden said once Isaac and Cora left. They were sitting in the living room, Braeden reclining against Derek’s chest on the couch. It was finally cold enough to use the fireplace.

“I haven’t really celebrated any holiday like this since before Laura died,” he admitted. She’d thought as much, but she knew that he hadn’t wanted to say anything in front of Cora. According to Derek, they’d never talked about her.

“My parents died in a car accident when I was a freshman in college,” Braeden stared into the fire, but she felt Derek’s arms tighten around her, “They were on their way to come and see me, as cliche as it sounds. I was...I was pretty lost until I joined up with the Marshal service. And then I got, well obsessed would probably be the best way to say it. Trying to find the Desert Wolf,”

She never really had anyone to talk about her parents with before, but Derek knew what she’d gone through. He might have lost his family to murder, but he knew that pain.

“Hey,” She tilted her head back to look up at Derek, and he brushed his lips across her forehead. “I love you.”

There was a sad part of her that wondered who the last person Derek had trusted enough to say that to had been. But she still felt happy tears stinging in her eyes and she twisted around, crawling into his lap and kissing him soundly.

“I love you too.”

* * *

“Merry Christmas!”

“Happy birthday!”

Scott and Stiles were standing on Derek’s porch, wide grins on their faces and gifts in their hands. For a moment, Derek was confused. Because it was indeed Christmas, and it was his birthday too. But Scott and Stiles were in Beacon Hills and not in New York, last time Derek checked.

“What are you doing here?” Derek asked, immediately regretting the way that it sounded. But he was surprised. Further inspection outside showed him that Lydia, Malia and Liam were also standing on the porch, none of them looking too happy about the snow and cold weather.

“I invited them,” Braeden appeared in the foyer, and Derek briefly got distracted by the fact that she was wearing one of his sweaters. “Your pack should be here for Christmas, Derek.”

He suddenly felt overwhelmingly grateful. Cora and Isaac were currently in the den, working their way through a bottle of eggnog while they were supposed to be helping to decorate the tree. But Scott and the others being there, that was something important.

“Derek, I’m freezing my ass off and you’re letting all of the warm air out. Can we come in?” Lydia asked over Scott’s shoulder.

“Sorry, yeah, come in,” he said, stepping aside.

Everyone came in, sitting down packages and hanging up their jackets. Scott looked like he was thinking of giving Derek a hug but didn’t know if it would be okay. Rolling his eyes almost fondly, Derek pulled him into a hug.

Over his shoulder, Derek smiled at Braeden and mouthed a thank you.

* * *

Braeden couldn’t breathe. It felt like all of the air was being sucked out of the room, and all she could do was grapple for a grip on the nearest solid surface. Her fingers curled tight around wood, and she felt it creak beneath the grip that she had on it. She wasn’t going to last much longer; all she could hear was the sound of her own blood rushing in her ears.

Somewhere outside, fireworks were being set off. She could hear them echoing through the walls, and if they’d been any closer they might have rattled the windows. A soft choking sound escaped her suddenly, and her back bowed up off of the bed. She felt fireworks of her own.

Derek crawled up the bed from between her legs, a smug smirk on his face as Braeden collapsed against the bed, feeling boneless and sated. She let out a laugh, uncurling her fingers from the headboard.

“Happy New Year,” Derek mumbled against her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her. Braeden looked at the clock on the nightstand; it was five minutes after twelve.

“What a way to ring in the new year,” she agreed, curling herself around him.

* * *

It was Satomi Ito that got Braeden back to work. One of her betas had gone missing, and she called Derek to see if he and Braeden could find her. Derek wasn’t against the idea at all; Satomi had been a good friend to his mother, and she’d been there fighting alongside Scott’s pack when the deadpool had been active. He almost asked her why she didn’t go to Scott for help, but had decided against it.

After that, it was job after job. They tracked rogue omegas that had run rampant on neighboring packs. They found a group of wendigos that had been keeping people in a meat locker in their basement. There was even a next of vampires, something Derek had never seen before. They spent half the year hunting monsters that had killed, or gone against their own kind. Braeden never took a job that involved trying to harm an innocent person, no matter how good the money was. And she never took a job unless Derek agreed on it.

He liked it. He might not have been a human that needed a gun, but he liked being able to do what Braeden did. There was a kind of rush to it, the kind that didn’t come from a quiet life in the woods. He enjoyed the fight, he enjoyed the hunt. Derek knew that Braeden did to. Any the money, well that was something too.

They hadn’t been home in nearly six months; half the year spent traveling and taking jobs. The job was great, but he’d missed their house. Cora had spent every weekend for the past six months going over and making sure their plants didn’t die, and when Derek unlocked the front door, all he could smell was the familiar smell of home. He lugged their bags in and dropped them in the foyer.

“Remind me to send your sister a thank you text later,” Braeden said tiredly as she pushed the door shut. It was only after nine in the morning, but the last job had been exhausting.

“Hey,” Derek snagged her around the waist and pulled her close, “Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll make us something to eat?”

Braeden nodded gratefully, heading upstairs to the bathroom. Derek hear the water being turned on, and reached for his bag. Buried in the bottom of it was a small black box, carefully hidden there for a long time. Ever so often, he’d take the box out and look at the ring inside of it, knowing that soon it would be the right time to give it to her. He’d decided on the flight home, Braeden asleep with her head on his shoulder, that he was going to finally ask her to marry him.

He made french toast, eggs and coffee, and Braeden came back into the kitchen, damp hair leaving wet spots on the shoulders of one of Derek’s henleys that she was wearing. For a minute, she looked a little ill at the smell of the cooked eggs. But she quickly smiled, dropping down onto one of the stools at the island.

“What do you think of inviting Scott and the others up here before the summer ends? Before college starts,” Braeden asked, sipping her coffee.

Derek smiled, “That’s a great idea, we haven’t seen them in a while.”

Waiting until Braeden nodded and took a small bite of her french toast, Derek slid the box across the counter to her. She stopped chewing, looking from him, to the box and back again.

“Derek?”

He leaned forward on the counter, opening the box and showing her what was inside.

“I want you to marry me,” He said, not taking his eyes off of hers. She started to tear up and he smiled slightly.

She sat her fork down, leaning forward to mirror him. Derek remember a time he stood looking at her like that, telling her that she didn’t know him. Back when they were trying to find Kate.

“I’ll marry you, on one condition,” He tilted his head in consideration and she quickly swiped a tear off of her cheek, letting out a delighted little laugh, “I’ll marry you if you listen...just listen. Use your supernatural hearing, Derek.”

He was confused, but she raised an eyebrow like she dared him to question her. Instead, he closed his eyes, listening. He could hear Mrs. Baker up the road cutting her grass, he could hear a boat out on the water. He could hear Braeden’s heartbeat. It was beating fast, but beneath that, he heard it; small but strong, there it was.

A second heartbeat.

 


End file.
